HUXLOK HUNDRED 



ISLIP 



Slcpe, Yttcslepc, Isteslcpe (xi cent.) ; Hystlcpa 

 (xii cent.), Eslcp, Ittcslcp (xiii cent.). 



The parish of Islip covers an area of 1,383 acres. 

 The surface of the parish is undulating. Liable to 

 floods in the vicinity of the Nenc, it rises about 250 ft. 

 in the north-west, and in the east is mostly about 

 too ft. above ordnance datum. The soil, which 

 varies in quality, is mainly clay and i;r.i\cl, with .1 

 subsoil of clay and ironstone. Harper's Brook, 

 which flows into the Nenc, forms its northern boun- 

 dary, and separates it from Aldwinkle. There is a 

 bridge over this brook to carry the road to Aldwinkle, 

 with the mill stream near by. The Nene, flowing 

 northward, forms its eastern boundary, and the parish 

 is divided from \\ oodford on the south by a stre.im 

 flowing east into that river. A little to the north of 

 this stream is the Kettering, Thrapston, and Hun- 

 tingdon brancli of the I. .M.S. Railway, which lias a 

 station about half a mile away in Twywell. The 

 Northampton and Peterborough branch of the London 

 Midland and Scottish Railway traverses the southern 

 corner of the parish, and a tramway takes a circuitous 

 route to the Islip furnaces in the south-west, where 

 the Islip Iron Company have valuable mines of iron 

 stone, and three smelting furnaces. There are old 

 quarries in the same direction. A fine white stone is 

 quarried for building ; and good stone for repair of 

 roads. Besides the iron work and quarrying carried 

 on, the manufacture of horse collars and matting 

 was a considerable industry. The population was 

 616 in 1921. 



The village lies along the road from Lowick to 

 Woodford. It has a charming situation and contains 

 a fair number of 17th and 1 8th century stone houses, 

 roofed with thatch, stone slates or pantiles, with good 

 stone chimneys. The newer houses generally are of 

 red brick. The manor house probably of Drayton 

 manor, on the east side of the street, now occupied 

 by Mr. Waller, is a modernised 17th-century gabicd 

 building with mullioned windows and tiled roof. 

 The Norwyches manor house is possibly the 17th- 

 century two-storied cottage, with stone slated roof, 

 on the opposite side of the road a little to the north. 

 It has its end gable and chimney to the street, but 

 only one mullioned window is now left. Inside there 

 are the remains of an oak staircase and two stone 

 fireplaces. The Rose and Crown Inn, in the middle 

 of the village, is dated 1691, but is without architec- 

 tural features, and two other houses are dated re- 

 spectively 1744 and 1763. At the north end of the 

 main street is a house dated f;fj and another at the 

 south end {jj,. The recreation ground on the west 

 side of the village street was presented by Mr. S. G. 

 Stopford Sackville as a memorial of the Great War 

 (1914.-18). The public elementary school, erected by 

 subscription in 1862 (and enlarged in 1883 and again 

 in 1894), on a site given by William Bruce Stopford, 

 then lord of the manor, is somewhat south of the 



church ; ind there is an infants' school, built in 

 1905, on a site given by Mr. S. G. Stopford 

 Sackville. 



The rectory house, a substanti.il stone building, 

 stands on the north-west of the cluircii. A reading 

 room, with billiard room and small library, was built 

 in 1897 by public subscription. Two almshouses 

 for two poor widows were erected under the will 

 (d. 1705), of Henry Medbury, a member of a family 

 long connected with the parish, Thomas Medbury 

 having been instituted rector in 1646-7. The alms- 

 houses form a pleasing block on the east side of 

 the main street, with good end gables, middle chimney 

 and dormer windows to the upper floor, but the 

 windows and chimney are modern and the roof 

 is covered with modern blue slates. The inscription 

 on the tablet is indecipherable : only the figure; of 

 the date [i] 7 [o] 5 can he distinguished. 



Chapel Lane led to the chapel of Si. Thomas of 

 Canterbury^ on the bridge over the Nene on the road 

 to Thrapston. I.eland wrote c. 1 545 'At the very 

 end of Thrapeston Bridge stand Ruines of a very large 

 hermitage welle buildcd but a late discovered and 

 suppressed : and hard by is the Toune of Islep on 

 Avon as upon the further Ripe.'^ Bridges says that 

 the ruins referred to by Leland were probably those of 

 the chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr, in a close called 

 Hermitage close on the right hand from Thrapston ' in 

 which stood several stews of water.' The chapel was 

 standing in 1400, when William Mareschal, chaplain, 

 had the custody of the king's free chapel or hermitage 

 at the end of the bridge of Islip.^ In 1492, Henry Vere 

 bequeathed 10/. to the chapel. It is described as one 

 of two chapels annexed to the mother church of 

 Islip.* The bridge has no architectural features, and 

 is of uncertain date It consists of seven round arches, 

 and has four cut-waters facing up stream and two 

 down stream ; the arches are of yellow brick and the 

 superstructure of stone. The view from the bridge 

 towards Islip is very picturesque. 



In the Domesday Survey i hide I 

 M.4N0RS virgate of land were entered as held of 

 the Bishop of Coutances by Algar in 

 ISLIP in the hundred of Huxloe.^ Before the taking 

 of the 12th-century Northamptonshire Survey, the 

 lands of this bishop had been forfeited, and his lands 

 in Islip, with an addition making a total of 2 hides, 

 h.id passed into the hands of Aubrey [dc Vere], the 

 chamberlain, by whom they were held of the king's 

 fee.* From this date the manor has passed with that 

 of Drayton in Lowick parish (q.v.). The bishop's 

 manor of Drayton in Lowick had also passed to 

 Aubrey,' who made a grant of tithes from land in 

 Islip, Drayton and Addington to Thorney Abbey, 

 which his son Robert confirmed. In 1584 the manor 

 place and close in Islip called the Lords Lands, in 

 which was the chief messuage of the manor, were the 

 subject of a suit.' 



* The patronage of thii chapel was in 

 diipute between Henry de Drayton and 

 Gervate dc Islip in 1231 and 1232. 

 Gcrrate maintained his right as patron 

 of the mother church of Islip. There 

 were no tithes nor right of sepulture 



belonging to the chapel : Maitl.ind, 

 Bracton't Note Bh. 625, 693. 

 ' Itinerary^ i, 8. 



* Cal. Pat. 1309-1401, p. 197. 



* Red Bk. of Thorney, pt. 4, fol. iv. 

 ' y.C.U. Northanti. i, 31 14. 



» Ibid. 365. 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. ii, 603, nos. 

 27, 23 ; Chart. R. 22 Edw. Ill, m. 26, 

 no. 36. 



• Ct. of Req. lix, 17. 



